The violence in Gaza and Jerusalem has made the conclusion to the Muslim holy month a somber event for many
The sound of the call to prayer resonated through Astoria Park in Queens, New York, on an Eid that saw sunny weather and an opportunity for human connection after a year spent apart during the pandemic.
The conclusion to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan is usually marked with a celebratory breakfast, new clothes, and a chorus of “Eid Mubaraks” and “Alhamdulillahs.”
Continue reading...Political rhetoric has cultivated hatred. Both Palestinian and Jewish citizens are paying the price
The horror unfolding in the Middle East is both old and new. There is a terrible familiarity to the destruction the Israeli state is raining down upon Gaza, and the lethal missiles fired from the Strip by Palestinian militants. Three wars and numerous battles have taught everyone what to expect: indifference to civilian lives on both sides. Already 119 Palestinians are dead, including 27 children, while eight Israelis are dead, including one child. The Israeli military describes its approach this time as a “higher tempo and intensity of attacks”, while Hamas is using “heavy rockets” to target heavily populated areas, including Tel Aviv. The risk of escalation into a full war remains. Israel has called up thousands of reservists.
The unexpected and chilling development has been the outbreak of intercommunal violence, with the last few days seeing mob attacks upon both Palestinian citizens of Israel and Jews, and destruction including the torching of synagogues and smashing up of Arab-owned businesses. Ultranationalists, brought by a social media callout explicitly threatening violence, were filmed chanting “Death to Arabs”. An Arab motorist was lynched in the same Tel Aviv suburb, while in the city of Tamra, a Jewish man was stabbed in the neck. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has described such incidents as the biggest threat to Israel, while its president, Reuven Rivlin, said that “a civil war [would] be a danger to our existence, more than all the dangers we have from the outside”.
Continue reading...Around the world, Eid al-Fitr celebrations have been taking place in another unprecedented year. With the uneven distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, Muslims in countries like the US and UK have been able to gather en masse for the first time in over a year and celebrate the end of Ramadan. Meanwhile, across Asia, some ceremonies have been more muted and somber, as families continue to lose members to the virus.
Adding to the complex emotions amid this year’s celebration, Muslim communities have been demonstrating solidarity with those affected by the crisis in Gaza, where Israeli strikes have killed dozens of people, including many children. As millions share traditional feasts after a month of fasting, Eid will continue through the evening, and often through the week
Palestinian Red Crescent says 80 people were hurt during clashes with Israeli police outside Jerusalem’s Old City
Clashes have erupted for a second night between Palestinians and Israeli police outside the Old City of Jerusalem as tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers prayed at the nearby al-Aqsa Mosque.
At least 80 people were injured, including a one-year-old, and 14 were taken to hospital, the Palestine Red Crescent said. Israeli police said at least one officer was hurt.
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Colombia to China
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Cambodia to Peru
One of the fiercest voices of Middle Eastern feminism, the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls explains her mission to ‘destroy patriarchy’
Every morning, Mona Eltahawy carefully lines her eyes in thick kohl. “It’s a ritual I gift to myself every morning,” explains the 53-year-old Egyptian author, journalist and feminist activist. “Holding that brush is like being a calligrapher, and I consider lining my eyes as a way of writing a love letter to myself. It’s a form of adornment, but it also connects me to my Egyptian heritage, because in ancient Egypt, men and women of all social classes wore eyeliner. It has become a kind of self-care for me since the pandemic began.”
We are speaking via Zoom, with Eltahawy in Montreal, where she lives with her partner. Behind her is a framed portrait of the Egyptian blogger and women’s rights activist Aliaa Mahdy, by the Canadian artist Nadine Faraj. Eltahawy speaks fast, beaded earrings swinging from her ears, often pausing to run her hand through her close-cropped hair; she shaved her long red hair in May. “Red was my power before,” she says, “but to signal power now, I wanted to shave it all off, to say, ‘This is the pandemic me that is emerging.’” Eltahawy is not one for the unexamined life. She is likable, earnest and sincere.
Continue reading...Human Rights Watch urges more coordination by governments to tackle China’s treatment of Turkic Muslims
The Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, where it has escalated its oppression of Turkic Muslims to unprecedented levels, Human Rights Watch has said, as the NGO called on governments to take direct action against officials and companies that profit from labour in the region.
HRW also recommended the EU delay ratifying its recent trade agreement with China until forced labour allegations were investigated, victims compensated, and there was “substantial progress toward holding perpetrators to account”.
Continue reading...Pakistani government bans religious leader as row over satirical cartoons simmers
French nationals and companies in Pakistan have been advised by their embassy to leave temporarily after violent anti-France protests brought large parts of the country to a standstill.
Anti-French sentiment has been simmering for months in Pakistan since Emmanuel Macron expressed support for a satirical magazine’s right to republish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.
Continue reading...As Britain cuts aid to war-torn country on brink of famine Muslim charities are directing donations towards feeding population
The Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, which started this week, is the biggest period of giving for UK Muslims.
According to research by the Muslim Charities Forum, in 2018 the UK’s estimated 3.5 million Muslims donated more than £120m to global charitable causes during Ramadan, at a rate of £46 every second.
Continue reading...Worshippers must be vaccinated against Covid or have recovered from the virus, say Saudis
From the start of Ramadan, only Muslims immunised against Covid-19 will be allowed to perform the umrah pilgrimage, Saudi authorities have said.
Unlike hajj, the shorter umrah pilgrimage is non-compulsory and can be performed at any time of year.
Continue reading...Decades of persecution has left the Shia minority with little space left in its graveyards but prime minister Imran Khan is in no hurry to listen
Ahmed Shah had always dreamed of bigger things. Though just 17, the high school pupil had taken a job in the coalmines of Balochistan, Pakistan’s south-western province, one of the harshest, most dangerous working environments in the world. Shah was determined to earn enough to educate himself, so he could escape the tough life of the Hazara Shia community, the most persecuted minority in Pakistan.
Related: In Pakistan, tolerant Islamic voices are being silenced | William Dalrymple
Continue reading...Beijing wants to silence critics of its treatment of Uighurs. But the impact will be broader
China’s response to criticisms of horrifying human rights violations in Xinjiang is clear and calculated. Its aims are threefold. First, the sanctions imposed upon individuals and institutions in the EU and UK are direct retaliation for those imposed upon China over its treatment of Uighurs. That does not mean they are like-for-like: the EU and UK measures targeted officials responsible for human rights abuses, while these target non-state actors – elected politicians, thinktanks, lawyers and academics – simply for criticising those abuses.
Second, they seek more broadly to deter any criticism over Xinjiang, where Beijing denies any rights violations. Third, they appear to be intended to send a message to the EU, UK and others not to fall in line with the harsher US approach towards China generally. Beijing sees human rights concerns as a pretext for defending western hegemony, pointing to historic and current abuses committed by its critics. But mostly it believes it no longer needs to tolerate challenges.
Continue reading...Tensions between Muslims and Hindus high as Modi’s BJP shows it could win state for first time
In the sleepy, swampy surroundings of Nandigram, West Bengal, where mango and coconut trees grow in abundance, bicycles meander down dusty lanes and ponds fester with green algae, a vicious political showdown has been brewing.
West Bengal, one of India’s most populous states, will begin voting in its elections on Saturday to elect its state government. The significance of the poll, however, spreads far beyond the state’s borders. “The soul of not just Bengal but India is at stake,” said Malay Tewari, a Bengali social activist.
Continue reading...Camps for refugees are growing as old rivalries between Fulani herders and Dogon farmers are exacerbated in Mali’s war on Islamist militants
Mopti used to be a stopover for tourists on their way to the fabled Timbuktu, or to see the homes of the Dogon people cut into the yellow cliffs of Bandiagara. The Malian city, which is known for its grand mosque and rock-salt markets, lies where the Niger and Bani rivers meet. When the rivers flood, the town is turned into a series of islands.
But the visitors and their cameras are gone, and the 4x4s that used to transport them replaced with those bearing logos of humanitarian organisations, as the Mali government struggles to root out a strengthening Islamist movement that has been expanding from the north of the country since 2015.
Continue reading...Minister cites national security for decision, saying garments are ‘sign of religious extremism’
Sri Lanka has announced plans to ban the wearing of burqas and said it would close more than 1,000 Islamic schools known as madrassas, citing national security.
The minister of public security, Sarath Weerasekara, said he had signed a paper on Friday seeking the approval of the cabinet of ministers to ban burkas – outer garments that cover the body and face worn by some Muslim women.
Continue reading...The 51 worshippers murdered in the Christchurch mosque attacks almost two years ago by a white supremacist have been remembered at a national service with songs, prayers, speeches and pledges to rebuild the community.
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the governor-general, Patsy Reddy, joined around 1,000 members of the community at Christchurch’s Horncastle arena on Saturday for the service
Continue reading...Thinktank publishes first non-governmental legal examination of China’s actions in Xinjiang
The Chinese government has breached every single article of the UN genocide convention in its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang, and bears responsibility for committing genocide, according to a landmark legal report.
The 25,000-word report, published by a non-partisan US-based thinktank, is one of the first independent, non-government legal examination of China’s treatment of Uighurs under the 1948 genocide convention.
Continue reading...Muslim groups criticise move, which they say will further stigmatise and marginalise their community
Switzerland will follow France, Belgium and Austria after narrowly voting in a referendum to ban women from wearing the burqa or niqab in public spaces.
Just over 51% of Swiss voters cast their ballots in favour of the initiative to ban people from covering their face completely on the street, in shops and restaurants.
Continue reading...A fatwa pronounces both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines as halal for Muslims
Whenever imam Alaa Elzokm comes across conspiracy theories – whether in person or online – he bridles at their poor sourcing.
“It[’s] always from people who say ‘people say this, people say that’, but never from an actual expert,” he says.
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